GUJRAT: Police claim to have arrested the suspect involved in the desecration of a shrine and the Holy Quran that were set ablaze on Friday morning at Bowali Khurd village in Sara-i-Alamgir Saddar police precincts.

A local court of Gujrat sent the suspect to district jail on judicial remand after the police produced him before judicial magistrate Zaman Ranjha at district headquarters instead of going to the court of area magistrate in the respective Sara-i-Alamgir tehsil due to security reasons.

Police say the suspect, who belongs to the same village, is said to be a psychopath who had turned into a ‘vagabond’ after his family severed links with him due to his ‘bad habits’.

Gujrat District Coordination Officer Liaquat Ali Chattha and District Police Officer Rai Zameerul Haq told reporters at a joint news conference at Jinnah Hall of Sara-i-Alamgir that the law-enforcement agencies had traced and arrested suspect Irfan alias Fani and all necessary steps would be taken for speedy trial.

PML-N MNA Abid Raza Kotla and MPA Malik Hanif Awan were also present at the news conference.

The senior officials also commended the positive role of local people, politicians, media and civil society in tackling the issue.

The DPO said investigators from various LEAs were probing the suspect.

Gujrat SP (investigation) Kamran Mumtaz told Dawn that the suspect had been traced with the help of the locals and he confessed to committing the crime of torching the shrine of Baba Meray Wali Sarkar and the copies of the Holy Quran.

He said the suspect had been seen by locals while roaming in village streets just before the people came to know the incident and residents informed the investigators who arrested him on Friday evening.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2015